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One by one they ambled out of the room, too well-bred to whisper to each other until the door was closed behind them, but James knew that Mother and Letitia would have their heads together before they reached the morning room. Uncle Morgan refilled his brandy glass before he left.
Sir Owen poured three small glasses of port, of identical amounts, and handed them around.
“I suppose it is useless to ask whether you might reconsider before taking such an irrevocable step,” Michael said.
“Quite useless,” Sir Owen said.
“If the Park could be let instead of sold, if only for Mother’s sake…”
“My mind is quite made up, Michael. We still have the Manor, after all, which is the Plummers’ ancestral seat. The Park means nothing to us — an extravagant monstrosity built on vanity, which I shall be glad to be rid of.”
“It is our family home,” Michael said. “We grew up here, and Patricia was born here. Mother adores the place.”
Sir Owen said nothing, for the arguments had been gone over a hundred times already.
“This is my fault,” Michael said glumly, and that, too, had been said a hundred… a thousand times.
“It isnotyour fault, brother,” James said, before their father could speak. “No one blames you, not in the slightest. It was not to be, that was all.”
“But if I had done what was expected of me—”
“You would have been desperately unhappy,” James said. “Let the past go, Michael. What is done is done. You will all move back to the Manor, the Fletcher family will fill this house, by the sound of it, and we will all grow accustomed to the change.”
James and Michael walked to the rectory together, as was their wont after any family gathering, so that Michael could relieve his mind of its accumulated grievances and James could soothe his brother’s restless spirit. So it had been since they were barely out of leading strings, and so it would no doubt be as they descended into old age. There being only two years between them, and having suffered the indignities of tutors, school and university more or less in tandem, they were as close as any two brothers could be.
“Will they be dreadfully vulgar?” Michael said. “They are bound to be, I suppose. It cannot be otherwise.”
“The father, possibly,” James said, “but the rest of them will be perfectly genteel.”
“How can you say so? You cannot possibly know that.”
“Unless matters are very much amiss at Harrow and Cambridge, the sons will be gentlemanlike, and the daughters have no doubt had the best governesses the north of England can provide. The stepmother is a gentlewoman, according to Simons. So that leaves only Mr Fletcher himself.”
“The mercer,” Michael said in sepulchral tones. “Chadwell Park occupied by a man in trade. It is beyond belief.”
“Formerlyin trade,” James said patiently. “He is retired now, and wants to see his family rise in society. Such men are everywhere, Michael. Naval men return to shore with fortunes in their pockets, the East India Company is turning out nabobs by the score and men of industry turn their mills and manufactories into cold, hard gold. Meanwhile, the sons of the aristocracy lavish their inherited fortunes on mistresses, horses and games of chance, or in our case on a grandiose country house in the Palladian style. Are we to spurn those who have risen to fortune by the sweat of their own brow? Our own ancestors were no better, they just got their foot in the door a few centuries earlier, that is all. The Fletchers may not talk quite as we do, or know how to bow to a duke, but they are not to be despised on that account.”
“Ah, there speaks the man of the cloth,” Michael said.
“I hope I would say as much if I were not ordained,” James said. “I shall not despise the Fletchers, at all events. I shall judge them by their actions, and at least they will bring fresh faces to our stale society. They will liven us up, I am sure, and if the eldest daughter is all Simons describes her to be, with fifty thousand pounds to her name, well, I have a very pretty little rectory that she may be mistress of, if she wishes.”
“You would not marry one of the mercer’s daughters,” Michael said, although he said it half as a question.
“Why should I not?”
Michael spun round to face him, grabbing his arm in a painful grip. “Because if you had been minded to marry an heiress, you could have done so any time this past two years and spared us the grief… thehumiliationof giving up our home. But then you have never cared about the Park, have you?Youdo not lie awake at night wondering how we will survive the shame.Youdo not dread seeing strangers in our home.Youdo not have to struggle every minute to appear not to mind. Damnation, James, you have not the least sensibility.”
“Well, no, not much, I admit it. But if I do not care greatly about the Park, I do care about my family, brother, and I know that Father will be relieved of that dreadful desperation now. He hides it well, but financial worries have ground him down remorselessly since Grandfather’s death, and now he will be free of all that. For the first time, his income will exceed his expenditure, and there will be a little money to set aside for Patricia, perhaps. And we still have the Manor, which is ourrealhome.”
“I shall hate it,” Michael said morosely, shoulders hunched, as they began to walk again. “We shall be cooped up together, all six of us, and Letitia’s horrid infants. What a life!”
“There is plenty of room at the Rectory,” James said.
Michael’s eyebrows lifted. “Truly? Are you in all earnest offering me a home?”
“Of course. Why not? I did wonder about Patricia, for Letitia will treat her just like a servant, you may be sure, but the horrid infants are a great attraction to her, for some peculiar reason. But you are always welcome, you know that.”
“You have never mentioned such a scheme before,” Michael said, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
